Herb Sundays 164: Ela Minus (Apple, Spotify). Art by Cina.
“Back on December 24: I made listening events in a couple of cities around the world for my then unreleased album DÍA. It was the first time “I was sharing the record with other people, and specially for those events I made a playlist to be played before and after DÍA. That playlist is full of surprises, even for me who made it, I like that a lot. At first it was about songs that reminded me of my time making DÍA, but then I added songs that inspired me, some mix references, it kept growing, but they all have something to do with DÍA.
I liked the vibe of the playlist a lot so I started using it for my shows, before and after I played. Yet, I haven’t shared it with anyone beyond that, and I thought it would be cool for it to live foreversomewhere on the internet, so here you go Sam, “DÍA before and after” for forever at Herb Sundays.”
- Ela Minus for Herb Sundays
This Herb is maybe a year in the waiting/making, looking at my emails. And then it arrived, and I got nervous about the angle, unsure of the story I was trying to tell about Ela Minus. I felt profoundly sad for some reason when listening to “Combat” off her latest album DÍA (Domino, 2025), a real mover, all rising action, one of the more majestic pieces of music this decade. It’s got those squiggles like the end of “All Is Full Of Love” like dust mites in your eyelids, when the woodwinds by Jesse Scheinin peek out from behnd the synths, its a real gut punch. I could listen to it permutate and writhe for an hour, but instead am resigned to leave it on repeat as I write.
“Combat” feels like a mission statement for Minus, the individual against the grain, the rebel optimism in the darkness. The Stuart Berman review explains:
If DÍA largely counters acts of rebellion with acts of rehabilitation, Minus leaves us with a promise to fight another day. The closing “Combat” is DÍA’s extreme outlier, both in its lustrous ambient swirl of synths and woodwinds, and in its revolutionary intent: Minus’ Spanish lyrics flip an old Alejandro Jodorowsky proverb—“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness”—into a wake-up call to action. Minus recently launched a Q&A blog (à la Nick Cave’s Red Hand Files) called For the Birds, where she answers fan queries about everything from her synth settings to her life philosophies. Its appearance underscores the fact that, after a long period of nomadic upheaval and intense self-reflection, Minus is ready to reconnect with the world. Though DÍA is deeply personal, its intent is to inspire trapped birds everywhere to start flapping their wings.
An artist in perpetual movement, a key part of Ela’s story is as a drummer and student which is often overlooked, that push into and out of academia, which Isabelia Herrera beautifully captured in her Pitchfork Rising piece.
In search of respite from the harsh professionalism she found at school, as well as an alternative to the now-familiar genres of punk and jazz, Ela found shelter in techno. She started going to parties in Boston alone, searching for a sense of freedom. “I wasn’t even drinking or doing drugs back then,” she says. “I was just going for the music, dancing by myself, and going home.”
As the saying goes, you have your whole life to write your first album, and a year to write your second, and Ela met the challenge. The Synth History site/podcast started their short film series with Ela last week, and it’s a classy affair—a travelogue with MiniDV feelings that captures the wanderlust nature of her latest album. After having to leave her apartment during the pandemic, she hopped studio to studio globally to collect music for what would be album two.
Black and white feels great for this video piece, but it eschews some of the most memorable parts of Ela’s oeuvre, those dazzling hits of color, ripped tape, and cables, dotting her mobile assault synth rig. One of my favorite ever studio visits was to that aforementioned Brooklyn apartment with my longtime colleague Amanda Colbenson as Ela was putting the final touches on Acts Of Rebellion (2020, Domino) in 2018. That synth/sampler/effects set-up bore the handwritten words “BRIGHT MUSIC DARK TIMES,” which became a mantra for her career, words of an indomitable spirit. Her quiet resolve and commitment, as cliché as it sounds, made her rise feel inevitable, a “star” in the making, truly.
My first memory of Ela Minus is as an opener in 2017 for Shigeto (Herb 131) and as part of the Portage Garage Sounds Crew with Zach (Shigeto) and Vinnie Massimino. Her name has become a sign of taste, as a steady collaborator of DJ Python, Helado Negro (Herb 25), and Nick Leon (Herb 140), who recently produced a pair of pocket ace remixes for her, serious Trance riddms (see Herb 141 and 142). I sorta hope “Combat” gets the treatment, maybe in an uncirculated file on some USB, somewhere.
That feeling of dogged optimism and resiliance is what we witnessed in the Together For Palestine concert recently, I hope this will all make it to YouTube soon.
From Ela’s site: One year of Combat.
“The title of my song is written on all caps. But the sound and sentiment of the sentence “one year of combat” feels powerful enough on its own. Related -or not- to my song.
One year of Combat
Combat is a chant. To evoke and expand the fire we all have at the mouth of our stomachs.
One year of Combat.
Combat is an accumulation of acts of resistance, - or maybe it is the strength that comes from the act of resisting- standing so solid in our own two feet, so firmly ourselves that we become unbreakable, unmovable, unchanged, incorruptible.
One year of Combat
The song feels -to me- like a profound call to awaken ourselves. Our true selves. To remember we are capable, even when underestimated.
One year of Combat
keep going, against all odds, to always keep going.
One year of Combat
Never before have I felt so lucidly that every single day is a combat.
Un año de Combat
La resistencia es total.”
Bonus Beats.
New on drink sum wtr, Elujay (fresh off the latest from his JEMS! project), returns with a new album A Constant Charade and single “Rogue Heart” which really burrows into your brain, breezy and melancholy, perfect for the season.
DÍA is one of my favourite releases of the year so far. She tested how much emotion can electronic music handle and the result is simply healing.
Hadn't heard Combat yet. What an anthem.